ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON APRIL 24, 2013 By Steve Newton When music legend Taj Mahal calls from a tour stop in Phoenix, it’s been just a few days since he played Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival at Madison Square Garden in New York. He’d been asked to play the event before, and never had the time, … Continue reading Taj Mahal wasn’t so much shocked as pissed off by Jesse Ed Davis’s death
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON FEB. 27, 2013 By Steve Newton In the annals of underappreciated pop-rock singer-songwriters, Marshall Crenshaw is probably at the top of the chart. Some may vaguely recall him hitting the top 40 back in 1982 with the single “Someday, Someway”, but it’s quite likely that even more remember rockabilly crooner Robert Gordon’s … Continue reading Marshall Crenshaw is a songwriter’s songwriter
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON AUG. 24, 2011 By Steve Newton There’s a quote on Carlos Santana’s official website that reads: “When you love what you do, you don’t have to work a day in your life.” If that’s true, then anyone who’s heard Santana effortlessly channel the sound of pure joy through his instrument knows that he hasn’t … Continue reading Carlos Santana says you get the tone with what you’re thinking
photo by rebecca blissett ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, JULY 30, 2011 By Steve Newton Due to its proximity to Seattle, Vancouver has enjoyed a special kinship to the famed grunge bands of the Emerald City. Before making it big the plaid-clad lads in Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden, hungry for gigs, would head north to … Continue reading Soundgarden’s grungey return leaves little to complain about in Vancouver
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON NOV. 29, 2006 By Steve Newton As the story goes, Jerry Garcia had only been experimenting on pedal-steel guitar for two weeks when he played it on Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young’s 1970 hit “Teach Your Children”. Garcia’s licks resulted in the most widely heard pedal-steel performance ever, but that doesn’t mean … Continue reading Buddy Cage says it was easy filling Jerry Garcia’s shoes on pedal-steel in New Riders of the Purple Sage
“The reason that Shout at the Devil was my Sgt. Pepper’s is because I was in fifth grade, and it was the first record I loved.”
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON AUG. 25, 2005 By Steve Newton Looking back, 1973 was a wicked fuckin’ year for American guitar-rock albums. It saw the release of Alice Cooper‘s Billion Dollar Babies, Blue Oyster Cult‘s Tyranny and Mutation, Johnny Winter‘s Still Alive and Well, and the debuts by Aerosmith, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Montrose, and the New York Dolls. … Continue reading The New York Dolls’ David Johansen says that the Harlots of 42nd Street were his favourite band
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON NOV. 25, 2004 By Steve Newton Unless you’re an avid follower of guitar players–and slide-guitar specialists, in particular–you may not have heard of Sonny Landreth. According to Eric Clapton, he is “probably the most underestimated musician on the planet”. But that didn’t stop Landreth from earning a Grammy nomination for his 2003 … Continue reading Sonny Landreth hoped some of Albert King’s cosmic dust would rub off on him
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON NOV. 18, 2004 By Steve Newton Has the Tragically Hip finally lost its standing as Canada’s top rock band? There’s little doubt that Kingston, Ontario’s favourite sons have been on a downward slide, popularity-wise, for the last few years. Back in ’96, the group came close to selling out the Pacific Coliseum … Continue reading There’s not a band in the land that can touch the Hip in concert
Brian Connelly’s snazzy fretwork with Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet helped make that group the leading instro-rock outfit in Canada.
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON NOV. 11, 1983 By Steve Newton Eddie Van Halen calls him “fantastic”. Gary Moore says “he’s frightening. He’s definitely dangerous and getting better all the time.” Carlos Santana gives him “more credit than anyone for just pure expression in soloing.” Journey’s Neil Schon says: “If you play guitar and ever think you’re … Continue reading Guitar phenom Allan Holdsworth says he’s not impressed by flash
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, MARCH 28, 2007 By Steve Newton A few days before attending last Friday’s (March 23) Eric Clapton/Robert Cray show, I came across a timely TV broadcast of Taylor Hackford’s 1986 concert documentary, Chuck Berry: Hail! Hail! Rock ‘N’ Roll. Both Clapton and Cray are featured in it, the former performing the … Continue reading Eric Clapton gets shown up by Doyle Bramhall II in Vancouver
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, MARCH 14, 2007 By Steve Newton When Black Sabbath came to town last Sunday (March 11)—calling itself Heaven and Hell, I guess, to make sure no one expected Ozzy Osbourne to dodder onto the stage—it was the quartet’s first public performance in 14 years. More importantly, it was the group’s first … Continue reading Megadeth blows Black Sabbath (“Heaven and Hell”) off the stage with its unbridled energy
